THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2006

Capital Improvements

City's Wish List Ranges From New Sewers To Police Facility To Trees

By DWIGHT ESAU

Journal Reporter

A city like Park Ridge has basically two kinds of expenses - the day-to-day operating costs of keeping local government running smoothly, and the cost of repairing or replacing facilities and infrastructure.

The city must keep water running to homes, police in the streets, firefighters on the trucks, public works crews active, trash hauling on schedule, the library open, etc.

It also must develop a capital improvements program that fixes sewers, sidewalks, roads, remodels or replaces public buildings, buys new equipment, etc.

When revenues are flat or declining, as they have been in Park Ridge for several years now, these capital projects cannot always be done in a timely manner, and priorities must be set. Park Ridge has an ongoing capital plan that it updates and prioritizes constantly. Some projects have been completed in a timely manner, others have been postponed for the short term or indefinitely.

The capital plan is defined in five-year increments, meaning the city looks at immediate priorities and long-term goals.

The city has spent an average of $10 million annually in recent years on capital projects. An estimated $12.7 million is being spent in 2005-06 (fiscal year ends Apr. 30, 2006) for library roof and other repairs, sidewalks, sewers, reforestation, alley paving, debt retirement, and so on.

In 2006-07, the current spending projection is $9.7 million, mostly due to a drop in debt retirement costs. This number probably will change in the next few weeks as aldermen and department heads finalize the budget in the early spring.

But as of right now, here is a partial list of significant projects the city would like to accomplish in the next fiscal year, and estimated costs (it is likely, however, that some of these projects may be postponed):

* Spend $680,000 to construct five new flooding relief sewers at Parkside from Burton to Weeg Way, on Peterson from Washington to Vine, on Washington from Touhy to Cedar, on Dee Road from Manor Drive to Habberton, and West Crescent from Greenwood to Chester.

* Replace 340 parkway trees at a cost of $80,200, and spend $50,000 on the ongoing Dutch Elm protection program.

* Install two traffic signal controllers for emergency vehicles - cost $33,000.

* Remodel and redecorate the city council chambers - $160,000 (new video equipment is now being installed there at a cost of around $100,000).

* Continue work on a geographic information system for the community development and preservation department for $41,000.

* Spend $230,000 on information technolgoy for such items as an information disaster center at the public works service center and eye net license plate recognition software and digital cameras for the police department.

* Install a new fire suppression system at fire station 36 on North Greenwood Avenue - $39,000.

* Videotape and line sewers - $241,000.

* Possibly spend up to $500,000 for architectural, engineering, and legal services for the development of a possible new police facility (this was previously budgeted for 2007-08, but may be advanced by a year).

* Spend about $500,000 on various projects at the library, including HVAC upgrades, new carpeting, etc.

* Resurface 8.3 miles of local streets with motor-fuel-tax funds.

* Replace 3,570 linear feet of water main on Ashland, Root, Crain, and Farrell streets at a cost of $953,000.

* Clean and paint the city's 125-foot-high water tank on Dempster near Lutheran General Hospital - $286,000.

* Spend $290,000 on streetscape and landscaping in the Uptown tax increment financing (TIF) redevelopment area.

* Retire debt in the amount of $4 million.

Nearly $53 million is projected to be spent over the next five years on capital projects. It's a very fluid, always changing, priority-setting process. But the bottom line is how viable revenues are. Right now, capital spending in Park Ridge is at one of its lowest levels in recent years. and fewer projects are being done each year as city officials hope for higher revenues in the future.